The use of decorative Christmas lighting on the exterior of residences is a popular practice in North America. Strings of coloured lights are usually installed along the edges of roofs and the cornices of buildings in early December of each year. The lights are lit daily for several hours at sunset until about a week or so after New Years' Day.
Decorative light sets are typically hung on nails and threaded hooks which are installed through the fascia board of the roof. A first inconvenience with this practice is that the nails and hooks remain visible throughout the year. These fasteners alter the appearance of the house and collect webs and other insect works during the spring and summer period. Moreover, the fascia boards of modern houses are usually covered by prepainted aluminum sheeting and any perforation of this protective cover is objectionable.
In this respect, a number of different devices have been developed in the past for retaining Christmas lights along the edges of a roof without using driven-type fasteners. A first example of a device for mounting decorative lights is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,056,747 issued on Oct. 15, 1991 to Andrew G. Kireta. The article is a C-shaped bracket. The bracket may be clamped to wooden rafters below the eave, to rain gutter or to porch support posts. The C-shaped bracket is also attachable to the roof by inserting one leg of the bracket under a roof shingle. Several clips are provided on the surface of the bracket to accommodate decorative light strings running in any directions.
Another device of the prior art is illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 5,141,192, issued on Aug. 25, 1992 to William E. Adams. The article has a spiral member on one end and a J-hook on the other end. The J-hook is adapted to retain an electrical cord of a light string and the spiral end is attachable to the outside lip of a rain gutter. The article is workable with an elongated staff such that the Christmas lights may be put up and removed without using a ladder.
One inconvenience of installing a bracket on the rain gutter or over the edge of a roof is that the bracket often becomes bound in snow and ice before the end of the holiday season. It is not uncommon to receive several heavy snow falls and freezing rain in December and early January. Therefore, when the light set is due for being removed, the task must be done with great care to avoid damaging the light bulbs, the mounting brackets and the roof itself. This task is often made quite harsh by typically inclement January winds.